By the time it was all said and done the wild fire six miles in back of Big Butte (that had been dubbed Wildhorse Fire) had burned 26,000 acres.
A few days after the Wildhorse had ignited as a result of lightening, I read in the local newspaper that it was almost contained.
The same day that I read it was all but contained I walked with Kory around town late in the evening.
By that time the sky was completely filled with smoke, the buttes were covered in a haze, and the mountains to the north had completely disappeared.
Kory and I walked late in the evening.
Late enough that the extreme heat of the day had finally given way to cooler temperatures, and we took our time wandering up and down each gravel road in town.
As we finally began to wander our way back to the house I glanced south west, towards the tall rock hills that sat clustered together out in the desert two miles from town.
A place that LC and I had christened 8 Points the first time we found them, and a place we had visited often over these past four years.
I glanced towards the 8 Points and I saw smoke...................
A few days after the Wildhorse had ignited as a result of lightening, I read in the local newspaper that it was almost contained.
The same day that I read it was all but contained I walked with Kory around town late in the evening.
By that time the sky was completely filled with smoke, the buttes were covered in a haze, and the mountains to the north had completely disappeared.
Kory and I walked late in the evening.
Late enough that the extreme heat of the day had finally given way to cooler temperatures, and we took our time wandering up and down each gravel road in town.
As we finally began to wander our way back to the house I glanced south west, towards the tall rock hills that sat clustered together out in the desert two miles from town.
A place that LC and I had christened 8 Points the first time we found them, and a place we had visited often over these past four years.
I glanced towards the 8 Points and I saw smoke...................
Again we made a call, and again INL and BLM fire fighters were already on the scene of a growing wildfire - this time only a few miles outside of Atomic City..................
By the next day the normally quiet town of Atomic City (and the BLM Fire Station on the outskirts of town more specifically) was akin to a military command post.
By Day 2 of the Lave Flow Wildfire helicopters stationed on the far side of town were flying overhead and making regular water drops.
Scores of large and small trucks were parked at the fire station and in open fields on both ends of town.
A hundred fire fighters swarmed the town, sleeping in the station, in campers and in set up single man tents in one more open field.
An entire unit of support services (providing everything from potable water to catering to laundry services) were set up.
Immediately after putting out one fire, a second had developed.................
A couple of days into this second fire I ventured out onto BLM land with Kory.
The place felt almost surreal.
It was still daylight and I knew that scores of fire fighters were somewhere "out there" fighting the new fire.
Overhead the sky was the cloudless blue that it had been for seemingly forever, but the mountains were hidden behind the smoke and the world felt faded, washed out and eerily quiet.
Some pictures taken on our trip.................
The fire fighters were gone all day every day for five days.
Leaving early in the morning and returning late into the evening.
Exhausted. Dirty. Hungry.
The photographer in me wanted to capture pictures of them as they slowly wandered to the mess hall after getting cleaned up late into the evening.
The decent human being in me simply let them be and wished them continued safety.
Some pictures I COULD grab without being intrusive...................
By the time the Wildhorse and Lava Field wild fires had both been extinguished, more than 50,000 acres of grass land had been scorched.
Both were started by dry lightening and both were fed by the ample vegetation we had in the desert (due to high amounts of snow through the winter and a wet spring).
On the last night we talked to a couple of fire fighters who were walking close to the fire station just before dark and they tiredly (but thankfully) told us that both fires were out.
Early the next morning the entire command post had already bugged out, leaving only the normal contingent of BLM fire fighters remaining in Atomic City.
The rest were headed to the outskirts of Pocatello 50 miles to our south west.
That fire was rapidly growing.......................
